British Airways hit by protests and check-in woes

Tuesday, September 06, 2016 - 01:32

Air passengers have had to put up with lengthy delays in Britain after a computer glitch hit British Airways check-ins and protesters from ''Black Lives Matter'' forced their way on to the runway of London City Airport. Sonia Legg reports

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A double whammy for UK air travel.
First off - 120 flights from London's City Airport - close to the Canary Wharf financial centre - were cancelled, delayed or diverted.
Nine protestors from "Black Lives Matter" locked themselves together on the runaway.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) DELAYED PASSENGER, TOM MCCANN, SAYING:
"We got announcements coming through the tannoy saying they were apologising for the inconvenience at the airport, due to protesters on the runway but they would update us, but in fact, we kept getting this message for hours on end, but they never did update us as to what was actually happening."
While police were handling the incident - all nine protestors were eventually arrested - British Airways was dealing with more widespread delays.
A computer glitch meant it took longer than normal to process customers at a number of airports.
They included Gatwick and Heathrow in the UK and San Francisco, Washington and Atlanta in the States.
It was the second problem with BA's service this year.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) CMC MARKETS ANALYST, JASPER LAWLER, SAYING:
"Long running customers are not going to stop using their loyalty schemes, or their long favoured routes because of a one-off glitch, obviously if it starts re-occurring then you start wondering about the quality of the systems in place at BA and that's when you start looking at your options."
BA's owner IAG apologised for the problems, saying it was teething problems with a new check-in system.
And despite anger across social media investors didn't appear too worried - the airline's shares went up.

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